Barcelona 4

We’ve visited the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and saw the procession of the three kings - all in one day.

As an aside - Dave yearned after this coffee machine.  Seen in a cafe that had thunder and lightening storms played out.

The Sagrada Familia was simply beautiful, we have visited loads of churches, temples and mosques around the world but this is the one that took our breath away.  It is totally unique in design and its construction.  After 140 years almost 70% has now been completed and they are hoping to complete it completely in the next ten years.  It has also been built solely using donations from local people and visitors; no church involvement at all.  In prosperous times the build has been quicker as more money comes in, but during the depression work almost stopped as nobody could afford to donate to the project.

The building is too big and surrounded to get a full exterior photo

The dark bits are completed; the pale parts still to be built (30% still to do)

The interior has only recently been made waterproof as Gudi designed and built the facades first, so that each generation could see progress being made with their money.  They are now building the final towers and completing the last facade.

Very difficult to choose which photos to include

Inside, the columns are of different sizes and colours and also leaning slightly to make the interior look like a forest.  The colours of the light entering the building emphasises dawn through to evening.  The detail is incredible.  The facades change in style from beauty and nature for the nativity through to angular cubism and some violence for the crucifixion.  It is simply phenomenal.

The angular, crucifixion side

Gaudi also did a lot of work in Park Guell - a failed town planning project of which the park was supposed to be the centre piece - the park succeeds but the developers idea of a grand residential area surrounding it didn’t.  Park Guell is now one of Barcelona’s favourite leisure areas.

Gaudi buildings are always interesting

The procession of the three kings (arrived on camels) celebrates the arrival of the magi into Jerusalem and is a carnival-like parade with hundreds of floats inching their way around the city.  

This is the largest annual procession in the Barcelona calendar 

Horse fix??

A sculpture of Gaudi - he hated having his photo taken, so very few of him exist

I will leave you with a few photos of the interior - built like a forest 

Today is a jobs day, sorting the washing and the boat stuff out ready to leave Barcelona tomorrow, I think we are both ready to leave but also looking forward to returning in the future as there is much more yet to explore.

Barcelona 3

We had a great time back in the UK for Christmas seeing family and friends. We’d hired a place at Tewitfield for a week, so had a home from home for Christmas too - all very civilised.

The hounds came on Boxing Day

Traditional Boxing Day scene at the pub

You just never know what you may come across on a walk

Our 'home' for Christmas - just can't get away form those canals

Best Xmas decorations out

Lovely weather Boxing day

All minus Joe  - who flew in a day later

We flew back to the boat on 29th December, just before Jen and her friends arrived in Barcelona to celebrate New Year. - great place to be for the celebrations, this city knows how to put on a party.

The girls posing (cup of tea in hand)

Excellent fireworks too.  They have a strange tradition here of having a bag of twelve grapes with you at midnight and then as each bell strikes you put one grape in your mouth until all twelve are in there, and no early chewing! - supposed to bring good luck for the coming year - its not as easy as it sounds!

We all went for a gentle New Years day sail in the afternoon before Jen and her mates departed for the airport - she was only here for a couple of days but we loved it.

Jen at the helm

We’ve also spent the last couple of days speaking to lots of the local police as my watch was stolen - I suspect that’s never to be seen again.

Today we had a long walk around the city, planning on which tourist sights to see before we finally leave this fantastic city to sail further south before the winter(?) arrives.  At the moment its cool at night, but nicely warm in sheltered sunny spots during the day.

It’s tourist time for the next few days before we leave Barcelona on the 7th - should get lots of piccies.

Barcelona 2

We've spent the last few days wandering around the city, basically just getting lost! Some of the best pictures we took were from the cable car that runs across the port to Montjuic - where the Barcelona Olympics were held.

Over the last few days more super yachts have been arriving, lots of work being done by the crews, polishing and provisioning - the owners must be due!  The white "slugs" you can see in the picture below are super yachts wrapped up for the winter.

View from inside the cable car tower

Our boat is in the centre of the picture close to the sand coloured building. The Sagrada Familia is in the distance.

Looking north east along the beaches

Great cable car trip.

At the cafe on Montjuic

The commercial half of the port.

Fabulous tapas bar - only serves Cava - €1.10 a glass!


Back in the UK tomorrow...

Barcelona!

We sailed slowly under blue skies from Badalona towards Barcelona but eventually gave up and put the motor on for the last mile or so.

A huge sea wall guards the harbour and from the small ships entrance to the inner harbour of Port Vell is about 1/2 mile. Fascinating to see the superyacht harbours and dry docks - unbelievable amounts of money being spent on these toys.

Sailing into Port Vell

As we entered Port Vell we realised that we were mooring in a corner of one of these superyacht harbours. Amazing!  We refuelled with a bit of a struggle as the fuel lines were more suited to big power boats and it was difficult to get the pump to run slowly enough for us - 20litres thank you, that’s plenty for us! 

Nod to Christmas - poinsettia 

What a location this port has - a few hundred yards from the bottom of the Ramblas, towards the La Barceloneta district, easy walking distance from all of the main tourist sites - well worth the cost of the harbour fees.

We tucked ourselves into our stern to berth and looked around.  To one side are yachts worth over £10m, 200 yards to other side are super superyachts, A quick sneaky look on the internet showed that one of them, Hampshire II, cost £130m, oh and the owner also has the slightly smaller, at 56m long, Hampshire I! Absolutely amazing and obscene at the same time.  The super yacht industry here must provide a huge income for the city and loads of employment though.
Fantastic facilities as well including the private crew lounge with the best view of the harbour.

Crew lounge

This is one of the great cities of the world and we’ve simply wandered around getting lost and discovering fabulous corners of the city.  We’re saving some of the more well known sights until january when the weather might not be a good as it is now - still in shorts and t-shirts!

We'll get more photos once we've fixed our camera too!

one of the many lovely buildings

Our neighbours

Sunday morning paddle along the beach

Closer and closer to Barcelona

Closer and closer to Barcelona

We’ve booked into a marina in Barcelona from the 8th December so we are currently dawdling along the coast, taking our time to do the last few miles.  We don’t want to arrive early as the daily rate at the marina is high.  We booked for a month and got a much better rate.  That said 5 miles outside Barcelona and the rates drop dramatically but we thought we’d treat ourselves to some time in Barcelona before heading further south.

On the way along the coast  from St Feliu we’ve stopped at Blanes - had three days here, great town, full of life, good fishy tapas, nice beach, great little cala within walking distance of the harbour, El Masnou - officially our most boring and expensive place to date, and Badalona - nice place and good value.

Blanes harbour

Blanes

Sailing for just a few hours each day has been very relaxing and the weather has been very kind - light winds and blue skies.  Being a sailor, I’m never happy and a bit more wind at times would have been good!

Nice coastline

Bit rough

Tomorrow is Barcelona - bit of a milestone for us as we said 15 years ago we’d sail our previous boat here but got somewhat distracted along the way  - too many interesting places to see!

Planning on a night out in the town.

Spanish entry and cruising towards Barcelona

Banyuls to Roses

Well, we made it to Spain; bit of a battle though, the forecast winds grew somewhat and changed direction to make life hard for us.  Who said French weather forecasts were good! What was supposed to be 12-16 knots ended up as 25 knots with good periods of nearly 30 knots.  The waves built up rapidly too.

Our camera lost its display screen after a dousing whilst sailing, so iPad being used.

As we closed on Cabo de Creus the seas grew to a fair size indeed, impressive enough for us not to want to be there!  Too busy and too wet to take photos I’m afraid but to give you some idea, one good one broke over the boat, shot over the coachroof, up the windscreen, over the sprayhood and dumped green water on us in the cockpit.  A proper dousing. We managed to steer around most of the other really big ones and keep them out of the cockpit.

As we passed the Cabo we were able to alter course, slowly set more and more sail and ease the sheets.  

The seas slowly lessened and we picked up speed too. Helped by surfing on some of the waves. By the time we got to Roses we were in sheltered waters, and as we entered the harbour the water was perfectly flat and wind dropped to about 10knots. 

Just had time to lower the French courtesy flag and raise the Spanish one.

The port staff were great, they came out in their dinghy and led us to our berth, helping us with the lines.

Today was only 26miles but felt like a proper marathon!

I always said I wouldn’t trust the new boat fully until we’d had a bit of a beating; should have kept my mouth shut but I do trust it now.

Roses proved to be a nice place, plenty of cycle tracks for us to explore too. Cheap restaurants as well compared to France.

Roses to Palmos

After the days rest in Roses we set off across the bay and had a gentle days sailing towards Palamos; motor sailing most of the way with little wind and a calm sea.  Had time to enjoy the scenery, fabulous little bays surrounded by steep and high cliffs.  There were some fabulous houses perched on the very edge of the cliff.

Let's go South!

We passed rocky outcrops and small islands just off the coast.

Unusual rock formations on the islands

Arrived at 15.30 into the harbour, all very civilised 

Palamos to Saint Feliu

Multi-tasking

Beautiful day - prefect Med sailing, flat sea, light breezes and a blue sky.  Oh, and a head wind! todays trip was short so we tacked up to windward to the small town and fishing harbour of Port Saint Feliu de Guixols.  

St Feliu harbour (spot our boat?)

The weather was so calm we planned to anchor overnight in the bay, sadly there were "No Anchoring" signs everywhere so we bobbed into the harbour.  Lovely place, lovely staff and not too expensive.

St Feliu bay - think my photos may be better when I can't see the display screen!

We walked around the bay and found the locals small boat launch area - they have a rail track leading into the water and a trolley with a turntable on so they can pick up the boats and turn them around ready for launch - really cool system - never seen anything like it before.

Very neat way of launching and recovery of small boats

Saint Feliu is very picturesque

Now researching where we can leave the boat for Christmas

LEAVING THE CAMARGUE

Port Napoleon is on the eastern edge of the Gulf of Lyon, the western edge is close to the border with Spain.  The Rhone valley empties into the Med here and the weather is famous for being windy. The weather patterns funnel up and down the massive valley. Sunday came bright and with a great sailing breeze, from the right direction as well - something of a miracle!  We set off at dawn and were soon out of the bay of Fos and into the Gulf itself.  Our original plan had been to day sail around the Gulf stopping each night but the weather conditions were perfect, so we headed out across the Gulf on the 120mile route towards Spain.

Up at dawn to leave

A salutary lesson to obey the buoys

Halfway across the wind literally stopped and we ended up motoring the rest of the way.  We’d planned to get to Roses, just in Spain, but decided to shorten the passage a little and head in to Banyuls in France.  It proved to be a good idea as we could see an electrical storm way in the distance over the Spanish coast and mountains.  

The boat sailed well, it doesn’t point as high into the wind as our previous boat but in every other way its faster and more comfortable. 

Land sighted as the sun set - we arrived just before midnight

Banyuls actually feels like the Med to us - for the first time since leaving the Rhone, a small fishing and pleasure harbour surrounded by ochre coloured buildings and small beaches.  We decided to stop for two nights, just to enjoy having somewhere to walk out to in an evening - and to buy some of the famous Banyuls wine.  We checked the prices at some of the towns Caves and then headed to Carrefour where a local women advised on the best priced banyuls wine.

Banyuls - our boat is bobbing about in the harbour behind

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Banyuls is a cute town

Weather permitting heading to Spain tomorrow. Have to dig out our Spanish courtesy flag.